Monday, November 11, 2013

Bullish November :Everything you want is on the other side of fear.



Bullish November :
Everything you want is on the other side of fear. 

If monthly rent is above Rs.8,333, landlord’s PAN is a must


iStockPhoto
Live Mint : Vivina Vishwanathan  6 Nov 2013
If your landlord doesn’t have a PAN, you have to make a declaration
If you plan to claim tax exemption under house rent allowance (HRA) for the current financial year, remember that you will have to furnish the Permanent Account Number (PAN) of your landlord if your annual rent exceeds Rs.1 lakh, or Rs.8,333 per month.
 Earlier you had to furnish PAN of your landlord only if annual rent exceeded Rs.1.80 lakh, or Rs.15,000 per month.
What’s the change?
According to a circular (http://tinyurl.com/luyxazk) issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on 10 October 2013, if annual rent paid by an employee exceeds Rs.1 lakh per annum, it is mandatory for the employee to report PAN of the landlord to the employer. 
The new circular replaces the earlier circular wherein for financial year 2011-12 onwards, CBDT had stated that while computing the tax liability employees who are paying house rent of more than Rs.15,000 per month and are claiming exemption under HRA are required to furnish a copy of the PAN card of the landlord.
What is the exemption?
Under section 10 (13A) of the Income-tax Act, if you are a salaried individual and get HRA from your employer, you are entitled for tax exemption.
 In order to claim tax exemption, you need to produce house rent receipts. For administrative ease, salaried employees who get house rent allowance up to Rs.3,000 per month don’t have to produce rent receipt.
This concession is only for the purpose of tax exemption at source. However, the assessing officer can ask for a receipt, if required, as he deems fit for the purpose of satisfying himself that the employee has incurred actual expenditure on payment of rent.
For any rent above Rs.3,000 per month, you have to produce a rent receipt to claim tax exemption.
 The actual HRA exemption that one can avail under section 10(13A) would be the minimum of the following: the actual amount of HRA received, or 50% of the salary for individuals residing in metros (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai or Kolkata) and 40% of the salary for individuals living in non-metros, or the rent paid minus 10% of the total salary.
What should you do if your landlord doesn’t have PAN?
If your landlord doesn’t have a PAN, you have to make a declaration. According to the CBDT circular, in case the landlord does not have a PAN, a declaration to this effect from the landlord along with the name and address of the landlord should be filed by the employee.

How government selects bank chiefs

The fact remains that the government looks vulnerable when it comes to the appointment of chiefs of public sector banks as the rules are often broken and made with the apparent intention to accommodate certain individuals. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint
The fact remains that the government looks vulnerable when it comes to the appointment of chiefs of public sector banks as the rules are often broken and made with the apparent intention to accommodate certain individuals. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint


Live Mint : Tamal Bandyopadhyay  11 Nov 2013

The government is following different rules for different banks at different times and there is no uniformity in its approach
The government cleared the appointment of Arundhati Bhattacharya as the chairperson of State Bank of India, the nation’s largest lender, a week after her predecessor Pratip Chaudhuri’s term ended. For one week, the corner office on the 18th floor of the State Bank headquarters on Madame Cama Road at Nariman Point, Mumbai’s business district, was not occupied but the bank’s four managing directors were running the show. This, however, doesn’t mean that the government always takes time to act on such critical appointments in the financial sector. Had that been the case, a high-profile panel, led by the Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan, would not have interviewed 19 executive directors of public sector banks on 31 October for six chairmen’s positions that will fall vacant between August 2014 and March 2015.
The United Progressive Alliance-led government is on an overdrive to fill in the top positions in the state-run banking industry. The first two of such positions will fall vacant in August (Indian Overseas Bank and Bank of Baroda); another two in October (Canara Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce); one in January 2015 (Vijaya Bank) and, finally, United Bank of India’s top job will be up for grabs in March 2015.
Well before that, five other banks will see a change of guard and prospective candidates have already been empanelled to fill these positions. On Friday, Sushil Muhnot, chairman of Small Industries Development Board of India, was appointed as chairman and managing director (CMD) of Bank of Maharashtra. Four other CMDs of public sector banks will retire between December and February. The head of Union Bank of India will step down in November, Vijaya Bank in December, and Punjab and Sind Bank and Allahabad Bank in January. While the government has already identified the successors of the incumbent CMDs in these banks, it is now in the process of selecting CMDs for six others, the first of which fall vacant nine months later.
Incidentally, Vijaya Bank features in both the lists. The current chairman of the Bangalore-based bank will retire in December and V. Kannan, executive director of Oriental Bank of Commerce, is slated to take over as its chief in January. As Kannan will be there just for a year, and retire in December 2014, the position will once again fall vacant in January 2015. Indeed, one must give credit to the government for being meticulous in its plan to fill in all possible vacancies in advance.
Typically, for every two positions, at least three people need to be interviewed. So, for six chairmen’s positions, the interview panel would have needed at least nine candidates. But there weren’t nine candidates who could fulfil the two critical eligibility criteria—a two-year residual service and at least a one-year experience as an executive director. As there have not been too many executive directors who could meet both conditions, the government relaxed one of them. It stuck to the two-year residual service condition but decided to overlook the requirement for one-year experience. Thirteen of the 19 executive directors who were interviewed have less than one-year experience and a few of them had become executive directors in August this year. As general managers, they had appeared for the interview to become executive directors in February.
This fast-track promotion policy has not gone down well with many. It’s not because relatively younger executives are set to become chiefs of banks but for the fact that the government is following different rules for different banks at different times and there is no uniformity in its approach. For instance, while selecting the State Bank of India chief, the government dropped the two-year residual service clause. Four managing directors were called for the interview and only one of them had more than two years of service left. The government waived this clause and, at the same time, introduced a new one—irrespective of the years of service left, the minimum tenure of a State Bank chairman is now three years. Had the same rule been extended to the public sector banks, the scene would have been different.
In fact, two members of Parliament have written to the government on this. One of them belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party and another, the Shiv Sena. I don’t know what these two gentlemen have to do with the appointment of chiefs in public sector banks but their letters make one point clear that such appointments are sensitive, for politicians as well as Indian corporations who borrow from banks. At least two executive directors in the past had told me that they had got calls from people willing to help them ahead of their interviews. Typically, such calls are made by chartered accountants who claim to be connected with relevant people. They do not ask for anything in return while offering their service. Both the executive directors claimed to have not entertained such calls as they were not willing the pay the price to the brokers for their service.
Typically, one is required to return the favour by giving loans to corporate houses and individuals who would later approach the chairman through these brokers. As a result of this, a bank may end up piling up bad assets. Such brokers also put pressure on a chairman for restructuring bad loans. I could not verify the allegations made by these two executive directors but the fact remains that the government looks vulnerable when it comes to the appointment of chiefs of public sector banks as the rules are often broken and made with the apparent intention to accommodate certain individuals. It is extremely difficult to prove this but one always gets the uneasy feeling that things are not done transparently. To defend its credibility, the central bank should disassociate itself from the process.
Tamal Bandyopadhyay keeps a close eye on everything banking from his perch as Mint’s deputy managing editor in Mumbai. He is also the author ofA Bank for the Buck, a book on HDFC Bank.

Public sector banks lagging in risk appraisal skills





Most banks have identified training gaps in the areas of credit/risk management, agriculture programmes, and foreign exchange, according to Reserve Bank of India Executive Director G. Gopalakrishna.

These areas require an equal measure of knowledge of rules, practices and specialised skills for appraisals, on the one hand, and an awareness of markets, on the other, he said while inaugurating the Nitte Institute of Banking and Finance at Nitte University in Mangalore.
Banks, he said, require training by external experts and institutions in these areas.

Stating that the training needs cannot be uniform across the banking industry, as each bank has a unique structural make-up of its own with a different set of aspirations, he said: “What applies to a public sector bank may not be applicable for a different skill set present, say, in foreign banks and new generation private sector banks.” Public sector banks have shortage of skills in credit appraisal and risk management, whereas new generation private sector banks and foreign banks have better skills in these areas, he said.

The training intervention in banks will have to be geared towards orienting, facilitating and encouraging more employees to take up positions in such areas to manage the competitive rush, Gopalakrishna said.

Stressing the need for the institution to follow a regimen of analysing training needs, he said this would help ascertain specific training requirements and address them specifically.

TRAINING PROGRAMMES

On an average, 60-65 per cent of bank employees are covered every year under some training programme or the other. While some banks have been able to train 85-90 per cent of their workforce, a few have been able to train not more than 40 per cent of their staff in a given year, he said.

Training is also required for senior employees, including board-level executives of the bank, in terms of accountability, responsiveness, and competence. These factors call for appropriate training interventions to keep them up-to-date.

It will be necessary to train independent directors on the boards on aspects such as their powers and responsibility towards the stakeholders and expectations from them that transform with changing times. This will help them perform their role well and without any interference, he said.




The Spirit of Thiruvalluvar :


11 Nov 2013

Britannica :

Little is known about the life of Tiruvalluvar except that he is believed to have lived in Mylapore (now part of Chennai [formerly Madras], Tamil Nadu, India) with his wife, Vasuki. He was probably a Jain ascetic of humble origins who worked as a weaver. Both Buddhists and Shaivites, however, claim him as their own, and he is especially revered by those of low caste.
Tiruvalluvar’s couplets in the Tirukkural are highly aphoristic: “Adversity is nothing sinful, but / laziness is a disgrace”; “Wine cheers only when it is quaffed, but love / intoxicates at mere sight.” Despite Tiruvalluvar’s reasonable tone, many of his ideas were revolutionary. He dismissed the caste system: “One is not great because of one’s birth in a noble family; one is not low because of one’s low birth.” The poet maintained that goodness is its own reward and should not be regarded as a mere means to a comfortable afterlife.
Chennai bus drivers have adopted the poet as their patron saint; his likeness is found attached above the windshields in the vehicles of the city’s official Tiruvalluvar Bus Company.
திà®°ுக்குறள் 

பொà®°ுட்பால் 
அதிகாà®°à®®் 49
காலம்  à®…à®±ிதல் 

பருவத்தோ டொட்ட à®’à®´ுகல் திà®°ுவினைத்
தீà®°ாà®®ை ஆர்க்குà®™் கயிà®±ு.- குறள் : 482 

சாலமன் பாப்பையா : காலந் தவறாமல் காà®°ியம் ஆற்à®±ுவது, ஓடுà®®் செல்வத்தை ஓடாமல் கட்டுà®®் கயிà®±ு ஆகுà®®்.

The bond binds fortune fast is ordered effort made,
Strictly observant still of favouring season's aid.

திà®°ுக்குறளில் பயன்படுத்தப்படாத à®’à®°ே உயிà®°ெà®´ுத்து-ஒள


How a rumour passed on Twitter got the taxman calling Hotel Saravana Bhavan

The tweet mentioned a “rumour” about Kalanithi Maran’s Sun Group buying the home-grown restaurant chain Hotel Saravana Bhavan.
The tweet mentioned a “rumour” about Kalanithi Maran’s Sun Group buying the home-grown restaurant chain Hotel Saravana Bhavan.

By Sangeetha Kandavel, ET Bureau | 6 Nov, 2013, 01.40PM IST

CHENNAI: It had all the makings of a viral tweet. It mentioned a "rumour" about Kalanithi Maran's Sun Group buying the home-grown restaurant chain Hotel Saravana Bhavan. That too, for a jaw-dropping sum. Yet, this Monday tweet by Bangalore-based techie RB Suseendran received a tepid response, at best.

It would have died a natural death if journalists hadn't seen this tweet. They did. And on Monday journalists scurried for confirmation from both parties.

This, even as journalists wondered why Maran would buy into the food business, however yummy (Saravana Bhavan has daily footfalls of some 80,000 across its 32 Indian outlets; there are 46 more overseas), when he is yet struggling with this 2010 acquisition of carrier SpiceJet.

Both parties denied it vehemently on Monday. A Sun TV spokesperson called it "hilariously funny" while another thought it was "rubbish." A spokesperson for Saravana Bhavan denied it too.

The episode seemed to have ended then and there, without a story. But it hadn't.

On Tuesday, the Income Tax Department got alerted. An official called up Saravana Bhavan to see this tweet indeed was true. Taxmen had raided the hotel just a few months back.

When ET contacted Suseendran over phone, he said he merely picked up the new from the Facebook page of one Anbalagan Veerappan.
The hotel, not so savvy in the ways of social media, was left wondering where it all came from.

Management Tip of the Day :How Much Are You Really Helping?


THE MANAGEMENT TIP OF THE DAY: Harvard Business Review

November 11, 2013
We’re asked to help in almost every sphere of life -- as leaders, colleagues, friends, and family members – but there is a difference between providing help and inflicting it.

 Even with the best of intentions, sometimes your assistance will just make things worse.

 Here are three kinds of “help” to avoid giving: 
  • The wrong help. Sometimes the only relief you can give isn’t actually what’s needed – offering management, for example, when leadership is what’s necessary.
  • The right help at the wrong time. For help to be useful, the recipients must be ready for it. It’s easy to misread openness as an invitation, but providing assistance before it has been asked for is ultimately counterproductive.
  • The right help, but too much of it. If you offer support and it’s received with gratitude, you may not know when to stop. Stay attuned to recipients’ ability to make effective use of your services, and stop when they’re no longer helpful.


Adapted from “Don’t Inflict Help, Provide It,” by Ed Batista.